Troika! x Barkeep on Borderlands pregame
Currently I'm playing with my group a short campaign with Troika! https://melsonian-arts-council.itch.io/troika-numinous-edition I wanted to run it for a long time but others in the group were not interested. But ever since I bought a Barkeep on Borderlands https://prismatic-wasteland.itch.io/barkeep-on-the-borderlands I had it in my mind to try run it with Troika! as it's system agnostic. And finally we recruited new person who completed my three-eager-to-play rule and we got it started.
Worldbuilding
At first I'm going to admit I kinda mixed stuff around. I wanted to keep Barkeeps identity but also didn't want to lose Troika!'s so I decided the adventure is happening in a Sphere that isn't a part of enlightened Crystal Spheres with city of Troika in the middle. And so I also came up with the law that prevents enlightened worlders from invading those outside by law of Prime Directive (like in Star Trek) - you cannot travel to other worlds and enlighten them because it inevitably leads to wars and instability.
Also in order to spice stuff up (and allow both elements to keep their identity) I came up with magic being different between the planes due to knowledge. Spherans know that other types of magic lead to consequences so their magic is a little bit chaotic. Outsiders (like in Barkeep) use magic that seems more stable but it is like that due to the metaphysics of this reality being damaged in the process. So locals do not deal with consequences of OOPS! but they slowly destroy their reality (would be nice if they joined Crystal Spheres soon and reverse the damage). I made it up it in case one person made a magical character native to Barkeep and other from Troika! but it didn't happen - we'll get back to it.
Character Creation
We did it in two parts. At first one of the players was absent so only two created their characters. Since both system and adventure present their backgrounds as d66 roll to make it more entertaining we decided to roll once and check both places and choose which character to take.
First player rolled 42 which is Parchment Witch in Troika! and Juvenile Delinquent in Barkeep. Both are fun choices but the player chose Witch in the end - playing a magical mummy was too enticing. Which funnily means she is immune to alcohol, the whole point of Barkeep on Borderlands adventure hahaha.
Second player rolled 24 meaning either Dirty Trickster or Exographer. He felt that Exographer is very out of place and wouldn't feel that well in a place specifically suit to not brake Prime Directive. And he played an archetype of a trickster in some other recent game and wanted to try something else. I said - "roll again or you can choose. If you choose just check out Monkeymonger or Dwarf and Derivative Dwarf or even Zoanthrop". But he decided to roll again with result 32 meaning either Foppish Dandy or Journeyman of the Guild of Sharp Corners. And really didn't feel like playing a dandy so to assassin it is! He wasn't sure of it at first but wanted to make it work.
Next time we met we were all in place so the third player created his character. He came prepared, already read everything and decided on a necromancer. So we got a pretty party - Assassin (technically still journeyman), Necromancer and ancient undead Witch. The last choice really settled the theme of it.
Funny stuff is all characters come from Troika! which gives 2d6 silver coins from the start. And a drinks in Barkeep cost 1 silver minimum XD
Additions
Minor mechanical tweaks, stuff I threw away to keep the pacing, simplicity and not to break my brain. Sorry, Troika!, you can be a pain, like with Initiative.